What is Lug Wrench Brewing Co.? It’s a virtual brewery with operations in both New England and Virginia. The ‘company’s’ core beliefs are in hand-crafted brewing, beer exploration, and most importantly, camaraderie. Lug Wrench is a brewery that doesn’t have to worry about profit margins, distribution arrangements, or market share. It gets to focus on the important things: beer and the culture that surrounds it. Lug Wrench Brewing Co. could just be the best brewery you have yet to hear of.

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Thursday, March 18, 2010

2009 Breweries Per Capita – Ranking by State

The recent attention from media outlets on the 2010 U.S. Census got me pondering the topic of beer-related demographics – specifically breweries and brewpubs. Where are all of these breweries and brewpubs distributed throughout the country? Are there some areas of the country that have more than others? Certainly. Some states just outnumber other states in terms of breweries or brewpubs. But simply looking at the absolute numbers doesn’t really tell the story. Sure California has the most brewing establishments in the US, but isn’t it also the most populated state? So what matters more: shear numbers or some other measure?

In order to get a better idea about how these breweries/brewpubs are patterned throughout the US, I decided to calculate out the breweries per capita numbers for each state – the number of brewing establishment per 100,000 residents. By taking the number of breweries in each state and dividing it out by the 2009 US Consensus estimates, I arrived at the data presented below. (It should be noted that the term ‘brewery’ in this post will refer to both breweries and brewpubs, and the term ‘state’ refers to the 50 US states plus the District of Columbia)

While this ‘Per Capita’ method has its faults (for example, states with smaller populations get a positive bias), by normalizing the data in such a fashion, it makes it possible to gauge the presence of breweries within a particular state, independent of population. While Vermont (#1) and Alaska (#5) have small populations (less than 1 million residents), these states have between three and four times as many breweries/brewpubs per capita than such venerated state as California (#18). This means that establishments in Vermont and Alaska have one-third to one-quarter of the local resources (patrons, employees, supplies, etc) as many other states, but these brewing operations are still able to thrive. Why is this? Probably because of strong, accommodating communities within the states that embrace beer culture - states like Oregon (#2), Colorado (#6), and Washington (#8) certainly exemplify this.

Of course, these data have to be taken with a proverbial grain of malt. Are these data definitive in sorting out which states have the best beer cultures in the US? Of course not. It’s merely another way to slice the information and examine how different parts of the country foster and support brewery-based businesses. If nothing else, its just plain fun to sift through stats looking at which states beat which states.

If one compares the per capita rates from 2009 with those of 2008, there is some jockeying of the positions. The top 10 states see only one change - Oregon (#2), which clawed up and flip-flopped positions with Montana (#3). The bigger changes can be seen further back in the pack.

Biggest Positive Movers from 2008 to 2009
1. Indiana (up to #20 in 2009 from #27 in 2008)
2. West Virginia (up to #37 in 2009 from #44 in 2008)
3. North Carolina (up to #27 in 2009 from #32 in 2008)

Biggest Negative Movers from 2008 to 2009
1. Kansas (down to #30 in 2009 from #24 in 2008)
2. Nevada (down to #19 in 2009 from #14 in 2008)
3. South Carolina (down to #39 in 2009 from #35 in 2008)
4. Arkansas (down to #49 in 2009 from #45 in 2008)

And on a personal note, I’m very pleased to see that Lug Wrench’s ‘facility’ in Rhode Island (#31) beat out the Lug Wrench ‘facility’ in Virginia (#34). So how about a big “neener neener neener” to you folks down in Virginia, Tom. : )